His lips trembled. Don't cry. Gods, give me courage.
His eyes trembled too. Tears were seeping through his eyes, not Dove!
Dom cradled his head in his hands, knowing that the tears would come even faster, at his most vulnerable time. But they stopped coming. Maybe he was dry of all his tears. No. He was just sick and tired of the tears, now they were only at bay. Dom could feel the hollowness of his red rimmed eyes, the gaunt look his face had turned into after lack of food and a five o'clock shadow. He felt like all of Tortall had carved out is heart, body, and soul, leaving him in a crumpled heap.
"... well to put it in simple terms, her heart was too big."
Dom stared straight through his cousin. He let out a strangled laugh. "You're telling me that her heart was too big? By the gods! What kind of trick is this? What have I done to the Trickster for him to forsake me? What have I done?"
"It wasn't you, Dom. No one could have —"
"You're telling me that there was nothing you could do? You've got healers upon healers! Nothing?"
"We couldn't just shrink her heart, cousin," Neal told him coolly in his practical voice. "It was not a single person's fault. And I'm serious about this matter. I know what Dovasary meant to you."
"You have no idea." Dom hissed.
"No, Dom. I know. I have Yuki and I wouldn't know how I'd live without her."
Dom slouched on his bed, feeling total emptiness.
They were going to have kids. They were going to have a family. Dom let out a cry through his choked throat. He was so selfish. She was so selfless. She waited for him. She loved him, and waited. But he... all he cared about was the Own and living out his dream. But she still waited. They married even though Dom was still in the Own. Dom knew that her heart was too big. Gods, the Trickster really was trying to kill him.
What was it? The time he annoyed Aly, the Lioness' daughter? Okay, practically everyone has ticked her off. She's the Lioness' daughter.
The Trickster must be trying to show him to be more selfless. No, not that either. The Trickster isn't that morally guided.
Dom racked his brain, pushing through every wrong thing he ever did.
None of it was really enough to kill his love's life. Maybe it was just an act of nature. Dom sighed, knowing that he would be in the dark for the rest of his life, not being able to see his love ever again.
Unless...
"She was known as Dove. Graceful as a dove, no doubt gorgeous as one. She wasn't the usual lady. She had integrity. She had a keen understanding of life, literature, and all other things that made her different from the rest. We can only hope that Domitan, known well as Dom, can find solace with his lover, Dove, in another realm."
Dom went hunting with buddies three weeks after Dove's death. He died
in that hunting trip in an accident.
Or so they said.